Wine Forum: Wine Flavors Made Easy
Jake Ellerbrock '02
Issue date: 10/5/00 Section: Diversions
- Page 1 of 1
Welcome to the Wine Forum. My goal is to write about the wine topics you are interested in and to answer all of your burning wine questions. Above all, I want to make wine less intimidating.
First, a little bit about me. I grew up in Napa, California, one of the world's premier wine regions, where I worked at several wineries, most recently at Beringer Wine Estates. I have spent the last eight years studying and collecting wine. It's a passion.
In this month's Wine Forum, I would like to address a common question, "How do all of those flavors get into wine?"
Almost everyone has probably picked up a bottle of wine and read the back label. What do you usually find? Typically something like "This Chardonnay (Shar-Dun-Nay) exudes green apple, citrus, and vanilla aromas with these lush fruit characteristics complemented by buttery and oaky notes and a hint of spice." What are they talking about…apple?…butter?…spice?…Is this an apple crisp or a bottle of wine? Is this stuff just fluff? Let me try to clear things up.
First, what is wine? It's simple…fermented grape juice, where fermentation is just the process where yeast turns grape sugars into alcohol. Nothing else is added. These flavors occur naturally in the grape growing and winemaking processes.
Grape growing conditions including soil type, climate, and pruning practices affect flavor. Winemaking processes that affect flavor are fermentation time, the type of aging vessel, and stirring frequency. The origins of some flavors are known, while others are being researched. For instance, the bell pepper quality sometimes found in Cabernet Sauvignon (Cab-Er-Nay Sawv-In-Non) can be traced to a specific molecule and develops under certain growing conditions. And, oak, vanilla, and spice flavors are generally associated with the process of oak aging.
The use of descriptors like apple, butter, and spice is a way to communicate one's experience of a wine's flavors in a way that others can relate to. Everyone has a sense of what an apple smells and tastes like. So if someone says this wine tastes like apples, then you have an idea of what to expect. Additionally, these flavors can occur in varying intensities so words like "hints" and "notes" are used to describe them. This also means that some people may detect a characteristic that others may not. This is simply a function of how sensitive one is to that flavor or how strong the impression in one's memory is of that flavor.
Another important point on this is that a person's impression of a wine is just that…their impression. Each of us experience the world in a slightly different way. As humans, our senses are imperfect, and subjective at best. Therefore, when someone insists that they found a wine to have a certain flavor, don't be afraid to give a different impression. It doesn't matter if they have 100 years of wine tasting experience. You still know your experience the best.
One more thing…it has been my experience that typically those who adamantly push their impressions on you…don't know as much as they think they do.
If you have any wine questions, please e-mail them to me at jre23. Cheers!
First, a little bit about me. I grew up in Napa, California, one of the world's premier wine regions, where I worked at several wineries, most recently at Beringer Wine Estates. I have spent the last eight years studying and collecting wine. It's a passion.
In this month's Wine Forum, I would like to address a common question, "How do all of those flavors get into wine?"
Almost everyone has probably picked up a bottle of wine and read the back label. What do you usually find? Typically something like "This Chardonnay (Shar-Dun-Nay) exudes green apple, citrus, and vanilla aromas with these lush fruit characteristics complemented by buttery and oaky notes and a hint of spice." What are they talking about…apple?…butter?…spice?…Is this an apple crisp or a bottle of wine? Is this stuff just fluff? Let me try to clear things up.
First, what is wine? It's simple…fermented grape juice, where fermentation is just the process where yeast turns grape sugars into alcohol. Nothing else is added. These flavors occur naturally in the grape growing and winemaking processes.
Grape growing conditions including soil type, climate, and pruning practices affect flavor. Winemaking processes that affect flavor are fermentation time, the type of aging vessel, and stirring frequency. The origins of some flavors are known, while others are being researched. For instance, the bell pepper quality sometimes found in Cabernet Sauvignon (Cab-Er-Nay Sawv-In-Non) can be traced to a specific molecule and develops under certain growing conditions. And, oak, vanilla, and spice flavors are generally associated with the process of oak aging.
The use of descriptors like apple, butter, and spice is a way to communicate one's experience of a wine's flavors in a way that others can relate to. Everyone has a sense of what an apple smells and tastes like. So if someone says this wine tastes like apples, then you have an idea of what to expect. Additionally, these flavors can occur in varying intensities so words like "hints" and "notes" are used to describe them. This also means that some people may detect a characteristic that others may not. This is simply a function of how sensitive one is to that flavor or how strong the impression in one's memory is of that flavor.
Another important point on this is that a person's impression of a wine is just that…their impression. Each of us experience the world in a slightly different way. As humans, our senses are imperfect, and subjective at best. Therefore, when someone insists that they found a wine to have a certain flavor, don't be afraid to give a different impression. It doesn't matter if they have 100 years of wine tasting experience. You still know your experience the best.
One more thing…it has been my experience that typically those who adamantly push their impressions on you…don't know as much as they think they do.
If you have any wine questions, please e-mail them to me at jre23. Cheers!